Progress: the Katy Freeway in Houston, Texas, spans across 26 lanes making it the worlds widest. The freeway is broken down in to 12 main lanes (six in each direction), eight feeder lanes.
One more lane, bro
I swear bro, just one more, please
Worked every time so far, I swear!
WE'RE GONNA FIX TRAFFIC, FOR REAL THIS TIME
Just one more and it'll all be fixed, trust me bro
Double it and pass the problem to the next generation
There are 2-4 HOV/toll lanes in the middle depending on where you are in the city. I only see 2 in this photo, and they aren’t called out in OP’s title.
Everybody in this photo could fit in like 4 buses
For a small segment of the trip. The problem with public transportation is that all these people are going to different locations and a bus being more efficient for 50% of the travel doesn't really help you for the other 50%
The problem is not with public transportation, the problem is that the area surrounding this highway was designed so that more cars and more lanes were the only possible solution.
Cars create problems that only cars can solve.
Edit: and to add more context: those 50 different locations are all separated by massive mandatory parking lots which make them miles apart from each other when they could likely all be contained in the same building in front of a single bus stop.
As someone who has lived alone for eight years using only public transport in an area with excellent public transport, I can tell you that you are both right and wrong.
You are right in that if there is just one bus line, then it would only serve a small subset of people in this photo.
But if you only make one bus line then the public transport system is doomed to fail.
A good public transport system will have multiple lines converging to the same interchange, and in the opposite direction it will have multiple lines departing the same interchange, following the same route and branching off when needed, this way you have added capacity and redundancy at the start of the line, and it gets reduced as the need is reduced.
Then add lines that are circles in higher density areas, this means that no matter the direction all passengers can get on all departures, you csn also quickly add capacity by adding busses that goes in alternating directions.
All of this means that travellers can define their own route along different bus, train, tram, metro and ferry lines.
Public transport is not ment to be point to point, it builds a framework where people decide what parts the want to use.
Oh sorry, 20 buses to cover all the sectors these people are going to then.
So what?
Living in a city with actually good public transit, it is used to achieve exactly that. To get any one passenger from any one point within the metropolitan area, to any other. To work for everyone, even though every single person is starting from a different point, and going to a different destination.
It doesn't matter where you're going or from where. There is a public transit stop nearby at both ends.
The fuck do you mean "a small segment of the trip"? I share this city with a stupid number of other humans, only a small number of which I go to work with every day, yet a significant portion of of the entire city population travels to work, entertainment and shopping, using the exact same transit network.
Your trip may overlap with a varying number of entirely different individuals along each segment of the route, and at each end it might just be you walking a few dozen meters... But come on! The fact that it adds up is beyond obvious!
Your argument is only valid for mass transit, that isn't actually mass transit.
And as density goes up (read less roads and carparks), the overlaps INCREASE and the whole thing gets more efficient.
There is a train station in Tokyo, that serves the same number of people every day, as there are citizens in my entire country.
Can you even imagine what a highway interchange that could serve 5 million people within 24 hours would look like? No, because it's a physical impossibility.
The only reason the number can get so high, is because transit systems consolidate travellers even when they aren't going to the same places.
You know, buses.. They make more than one stop.
All of that, for a traffic jam. Imagine turning 4 lanes in a train track carrying 500 person every 5 min in both directions and one lane in a bike lane. It's still 20 lanes for car, but you suddenly have decent public transport which would be safer and faster than that gigantic traffic jam
Or just a decent bus system. You could replace 50 cars on that highway with a single bus.
It's always first and last leg in Texas that kills this stuff.
The only affordable housing is far enough outside the city that you basically have to own a car because there's not enough density to have bus stops.
And going to a park park and ride following by waiting on the bus adds another 30-40 minutes to the commute and gets your car broken into 3 times a year, so nobody uses them.
The real solution is to mandate allowing remote work for positions where it is a viable option.
I commute 4 hours a day for a job where I log into a computer and do all my work online. If people like me were allowed to work remote we'd have more time with our families, traffic would be reduced, and housing closer the city would get cheaper for those who DO need to work in-person.
One train! A single train track solves all of this. No need for two. Just one. In the picture you don't see more than 500 or so people and that fits in no more than 5 modern train cars, with toilets, refreshments and other amenities. And it moves faster.
Yeah, well, many people are deeply stupid. And selfish. And racist. But I repeat myself.
Personally I think anyone who goes like "I don't want to ride a train I might have to sit next to a black person" should be dealt with more assertively, but I'm not in charge.
THAT'S MY AMERICA 🇺🇸 🦅🔥🔥🔥 ONE MORE LANE DOESN'T FIX IT MY A$$ LOOK AT THIS AND TELL ME IT ISN'T WORKING 🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🔥🔥🔥🦅🦅
I hate cars and highways so much.
I wish we had good mass transit like Europe.
Everyone always disparages the cost of public transport but how much does it cost to maintain these highways every year? A few dozen/hundred billion dollars across the country?
In USA they fund maintenance by developing the sprawl. So they are stuck in this circle where if they don't develop, they can't maintain, but developing means more surface to maintain, etc.
Also how much supposed leasure time is wasted sitting in all those cars, making the people frustrated, sick and unfulfilled?
they're not really maintained much anymore other than minor stuff. even that costs tons of money and is of minimal benefit for job security of departments doing it. you'll all be dead before any major development or changes occur. and even if they decided to do something major, the construction of it while you wait for it to be done over the years will make transportation even more unbearable for those years.
China’s mass transit is better. Probably we should just hire the Chinese to construct a national bullet train network in ten years like they did in China. But wait, we can’t do that because that threatens the profits of the bourgeoisie, who are the true rulers of amerikkka. Oh well, enjoy your eight hour commute to make your bosses richer!
Japan pretty much has it figured out. Bunch of trains, slow or fast, fancy or frugal. Whatever fits you there's an option. You can get a Pikachu train with a shop and children's playground if you want to.
Counting the service road is kind of cheating. In built up areas in Texas they're de facto city streets that happen to exactly mirror the freeway. They have intersections, lights, businesses, etc.
Yep. Texas does that because of a state law that says any landowner with property adjacent to a highway has a right to access that highway.
If I count the roads off the sides, on ramps and off ramps, etc, the highest I can get is 18 lanes. Is this the photo of where it’s 26 wide? I can’t seem to find it.
I can get to 22 in the foreground of the pic with some lanes underneath others with the flyover ramps.
Lol, the title even says only 20 with 12 main and 8 feeder lanes.
And traffic STILL sucks in Houston
Fwiw, feeder lanes probably shouldn't be counted in Texas because they're basically glorified city streets. Businesses can have entrances and exits on frontage roads, so there's not really anything special about them except that they have a slightly higher speed limit (5060mph vs 4045mph) and they have immediate access to the highway.
The feeder there is also almost certainly 45. So not really any faster than normal stroads.
I was going to ask if they count the frontage roads as part of the highway in TX. Because that's not right.
I just came back from tokyo after doing the JR pass travel to view the entire country. I fucking HATE CAR TRAVEL. taking the Narita express to the airport was so painless. Got back to IAH bush Int'ctl and it was a complete clusterfuck trying to get an Uber. Not to mention it was quite literally twice the price the express line train was. And that was one of the more expensive limited expresses too.
Public transport in Japan really is such a delightful experience. Also the organization and the habit of the people using it. It just works. And is cheap.
Just be aware that the JR pass is meant to be a form of soft power expression, with the goal being to make it easy for tourists to get places to spend money and then make them want to share stories about how great the rail system is in Japan when they leave.
They don't allow such good deals for their own residents, only tourists, since JR pass requires you to be a non-resident. For everyone else, it is far more expensive to travel moderate distances by rail than it even is to fly in most circumstances in Japan.
Hear me out: stack it vertically. It'll be great, I promise
Yeah, we attempted a surprise vertical stacking on the highway one time. 0/10 would not try again
Got to practice my first aid skills, though, and I even picked up a few stories for my first aid classes.
I know. They should add more lanes.
/s
We getting out of the traffic jam with this one 🇺🇸🦅🔥🇺🇸
And was we can all observe, it has solved traffic for Houston due to accommodating all the cars possible by upgrading with enough lanes perpetually.
It is expected to be complete once the lanes exceed N+1 or the population drops below N.
shit could have been 1 long passenger and 1/10th of a freight train
Am I the only one not seeing 26 landed here?
I think this is a picture before the most recent expansion. (They saw this picture and said "hmm not wide enough, too congested.")
In the normal parts:
That's 10 in each direction. But at any given time there might be merge lanes between the express and the regular lanes, between the highway and the feeder, or between the feeder and a turn lane. So at the widest point, around the major freeway intersection with another huge toll highway, they bump it up to one more of each type of lane, for 13 lanes in each direction.
There's also a fair debate about whether the feeder lanes should count. After all, they have traffic lights and intersections to deal with. But on the other hand, driving on them is necessary to get on and off the highway lanes, so in a sense it's part of the same highway.
Yeah that's a better description.
Also of note this is part of the evacuation system for hurricanes. All lanes are outbown in an evacuation.
But it also kinda hides some of the crappyness. it was supposed to be on top of a giant underground flood diversion system which is a huge problem for Houston as you may have heard. Also the center was supposed to be for a commuter rail but we couldn't get the bond passed so that might happen someday...
Unless they count the shoulders as their own lanes, I don't see 26 either.
I mean no shade, but I was honestly expecting as I scrolled down that this would be posted in c/ABoringDystopia
Try crossing that road froggy.
Texas highways are fucking terrible.
And I'm gonna have to deal with them in a couple weeks.
From the picture, I count 16 lanes. Is the pic accurate?
Extraterrestrial observer: And, do they know each of those vehicles are directly killing all life as they know it?
‘Murican: (Proudly) Yes!
This is the America that "let's freedom ring". A clusterfuck of metal boxes.
Yea, progress, progress
Reason #354 why I loathe cities.
Cities don't inherently create this much private traffic. Car centric city planning does. You can build cities that are not centered around cars. It is, in fact, easier to plan for fewer cars per person if everyone lives close together, because the places you need to go will be closer and you can bike or walk, and there's enough people for public transport to go frequently and everywhere without being half empty.
This is literally a consequence of urban sprawl & cars, not cities. lol
Infrastructure like this is mutually exclusive with the urban density of a real city.
If you have a highway like this, all you get is a highway, instead of a city.
